Stateline Northern Territory

Interview, Paul Henderson, Chief Minister

MARGIE SMITHURST - PRESENTER: The man in charge of steering the Territory through the resources boom is the Chief Minister Paul Henderson. He joined me after opening the Convention Centre this week to talk about the economy, elections and the one-year annivery of the Indigenous Intervention.

MARGIE SMITHURST: Chief Minister welcome to Stateline. The Convention Centre is certainly impressive and something Darwin can be proud of, I think. What effect do you hope it'll have on the economy?

PAUL HENDERSON - CHIEF MINISTER: Well it's a really exciting day to open the Convention Centre, and as I've said this is the new jewel in the crown for our tourism industry here in the Top End. It's going to have a significant boost to the economy over the next twenty to thirty years. We believe an extra $196 million directly into the economy, an additional 180 jobs at least, and certainly it's going to underpin tourism here in the Top End for years to come.

MARGIE SMITHURST: The economy is already booming thanks to demand for our resources. You're hoping to build on that by attracting the Inpex gas plant here. You've been to Paris to lobby on Darwin's behalf. How do you rate our chances?

PAUL HENDERSON: Look, I'm fighting as hard as I can for this particular project. We've still got a long way to go. But I believe that we're really in the race now. I've put a very solid case for Darwin. I've done everything I can and I continue to fight for this particular project, but we're well and truly in the race. At the end of the day it'll be a commercial decision, but I'll keep fighting for Darwin until that decision is made.

MARGIE SMITHURST: But it's a two horse race; how close are we?

PAUL HENDERSON: Look Margie, I'm not a betting man and my mother always said that a fool and his money are easily parted, so I'm not a betting man and what I can say is that we're well and truly in the race for this project. Both Inpex in Japan and Total in Paris know what we have to offer, know what our competitive advantage is. We've given them every assistance. It's their decision, it's a commercial decision, I haven't seen their numbers.

MARGIE SMITHURST: Let's speak in hypotheticals now. If we get the Inpex gas plant, in a few years time there'll be a huge influx of workers who'll need to live here. Where will they stay?

PAUL HENDERSON: Well one of the options available will certainly be for a workers village or a workers camp and that would be something that would be worked out between whoever's going to build the gas plant and that would go out to tender, so the first LNG project saw a workers camp at Palmerston. Obviously this project, if we achieve it, is going to see up to 4,000 workers. A lot of those workers will come from Darwin. The Darwin LNG project say fifty per cent of the work force come from Darwin, so there will be a workers camp or a workers village contructed to support those workers whop come from outside of Darwin.

MARGIE SMITHURST: Environment groups have raised concerns about the effect of the gas plant on the harbour. Will your government's new Environmental Protection Agency have a role in assessing the Inpex proposal if we win the bid?

PAUL HENDERSON: What will happen - and I can give Territorians an absolute assurance - is that Inpex will have to go through the Territory's rigorous environmental legislation and they will have to put out an EIS which will be open for public scrutiny and public comment, and if the EIS triggers the Commonwealth act, then the Commonwealth legislation will have to be complied with as well. So there will be absolute integrity in regards to the environmental process. It will be open and transparent and my understanding is, if the EPA actually want to have a look at the project, there's nothing atopping them doing that.

MARGIE SMITHURST: But you have to refer the EPA to the project, don't you? You have to ask them to look at it.

PAUL HENDERSON: I believe that the EPA, if they choose to have a look at the project, that's something that they can do. But I can give Territorians an absolute assurance - there's a lot of scaremongering going on here Margie - the harbour is not going to be destroyed, fishing will not be impacted on the harbour, we can see we have an LNG plant now with absolutely no detrimental environmental impacts on the harbour. We can have both.

MARGIE SMITHURST: It's fair to say that Territory's economy relies on these major resources projects. What if we don't get Inpex? What have you got up your sleeve?

PAUL HENDERSON: Oh look the Territory's economy is predicted to grow by Access Economics as the fastest growing economy over the next five years in the nation, and that's without the Inpex project, so you put the Inpex project on top of that, those numbers go up even more. So the resources sector, the defence build-up in the north and the service and supply and support of those platforms up here, the expansion of the tourismn industry, all of those are underpinning investor confidence in our economy. Inpex would just be the icing on the cake.

MARGIE SMITHURST: The new Convention Centre certainly looks great and will keep Darwinites happy, but is this just a case of bread and convention centres? Wouldn't those millions of dollars be better spent perhaps bridging the gap in Indigenous communities?

PAUL HENDERSON: Can I say that a growing economy and expanding government revenues as a result of greater population increases, which means more revenue for Canberra, expanding economy means more revenue for government, and that has allowed us to commit record investments in health, in education, in law and order, in protecting children across the Northern Territory. We can't make a investments we need on closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage without an expanding economy, and the multipliers that we will get from this convention centre, will assist us as government to provide those services and close the gap for Indigenous Territorians. We can't do that without an expanding economy.

MARGIE SMITHURST: Well this week marks the one year anniversary of the Indigenous Intervention. Clare Martin, your predecessor, has told the ABC that she lost heart in being Chief Minister because of the way the Commonwealth treated Aboriginals and her government. Do you think the relationship has improved?

PAUL HENDERSON: Can I say that the relationship has improved out of sight, just with the Prime Minister here this weekend, his third visit to Darwin as Prime Minister. I'm absolutely confident that my government and Kevin Rudd under his leadership, will do the hard yards that we need to do to close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage, make the investments we need, and two things, very importantly, work positively with Indigenous people in terms of closing that gap - if we don't involve Indigenous people, if Indigenous people don't commit to their part that they have to play in closing the gap, we're not going to achieve what we want to do. So it's involving Indigenous people and taking the politics out of it and I'm confident we'll be able to do that.

MARGIE SMITHURST: Looking back, do you concede the perhaps Territory government made a few mistakes, tactical mistakes in fighting Mal Brough on aspects of the Intervention?

PAUL HENDERSON: Look, I'm not going to look backwards Margie. I'm looking forwards. We've got the review of that Intervention has been announced, Peter Yu has been appointed to chair that review. I had a very positive and quick first meeting with Peter Yu at the Barunga Festival last weekend and I gave him, and the Prime Minister on the weekend, an absolute commitment to work positively in an open and transparent way, to work with the Commonwealth government and Indigenous people to move forward and close that gap on Indigenous disadvantage.

MARGIE SMITHURST: What is the number one change your government will be lobbying for in the review?

PAUL HENDERSON: Oh look, I'm not going to comment on that at the moment becayse what the Prime Minister has said is that we want this review to be evidence-based. And certainly all of the evidence is being gathered in terms of the impact so far on education, the impact so far on health, on housing, on the safety of women and children, the alcohol measures, all of that evidence has to be gathered. The one think I saty outside of that is let's get rid of this stupid $100 rule where you've got to write your name in the book if you purchase a hundred dollars worth or a box of wine. That's absolutely stupid, it doesn't go to protect children, and I suppose, top of the head, that's the first thing I would argue to go.

MARGIE SMITHURST: Final question - this is the jewel in the crown of the Waterfront development - but is it the jewel in the crown also of an election package for this year?

PAUL HENDERSON: Margie I've said consistently, as the Chief Minister I believe that governments should serve full term unless there's good reason not to. At the moment I'm focused on delivering for the Northern Territory and, as I've said, governments should serve full term unless there's good reason not to.

MARGIE SMITHURST: Chief minister that's all we have time for. Thank you very much.